Our tips for experiencing Florence’s museums in summer (without too much of a crowd)
There is a moment of the day when Florence is still quiet. It is half past eight in the morning, the sun is already warm but the city still has that silent light that makes it truly special. The queues outside the Uffizi have not yet formed, the organised groups are still having breakfast in their hotels, and the streets of the historic centre are not yet full.
If you are in Florence in summer, this is the secret: move before everyone else. And choose carefully where to go.
Visiting the Uffizi in summer: how to avoid the crowds
The Uffizi is unmissable, but it needs to be approached with strategy. Book online well in advance — in high season tickets sell out easily — and choose the earliest available morning slot. Arrive with the intention of not seeing everything: that is the golden rule for truly enjoying one of the most important museums in the world.
Choose three or four rooms that genuinely interest you — Botticelli’s Primavera, Leonardo’s Annunciation, the works of Caravaggio — and stay there, without rushing. Great museums are best experienced when the goal is not to complete them but to enjoy them. If you can leave by 11.30, the city is still manageable: the heat is not yet unbearable and the squares are not yet packed.
Florence’s lesser-known museums (but extraordinary ones)
Florence has a communication problem: it focuses all attention on the big names while its smaller museums — equally extraordinary — often remain nearly empty. For those who want to experience Florence beyond the tourist circuit, these are the places not to miss.
The Museo di San Marco is one of the most beautiful places in the city: silent cloisters, cells frescoed by Fra Angelico, a contemplative peace that the Uffizi can never offer. It is one of those places where Florence reveals its deepest dimension.
The Bargello houses one of the most important collections of Renaissance sculpture in Europe — Donatello, Michelangelo, Cellini — and yet it can be visited at a leisurely pace and with room to breathe, something increasingly rare in the historic centre.
Palazzo Vecchio is known to everyone from the square outside, but few actually go in. The Salone dei Cinquecento is a declaration of Renaissance power that leaves you speechless: its scale, frescoes and history make it worth a visit on its own.
Florence’s churches: free art and guaranteed cool
In summer, Florence’s churches serve a double purpose: they are places of art and refuges from the heat. Many are free and house works worthy of the world’s greatest museums. Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella, San Miniato al Monte, Orsanmichele: each tells a piece of Florentine history.
The smaller, less visited churches — Santa Trinita, Ognissanti, the Badia Fiorentina — offer something even more precious: forgotten frescoes and a few minutes of genuine solitude in the middle of an overcrowded city.
The Cappella Brancacci, in Oltrarno, deserves a dedicated visit. Masaccio’s frescoes are among the founding works of Western painting, and access is limited: a small number of visitors at a time, a few minutes in front of those walls. A rare experience, hard to find elsewhere in Florence during high season.
Oltrarno: Florence’s most authentic neighbourhood
If you want to understand what Florence is really like, spend time in Oltrarno. This neighbourhood still holds the atmosphere that the historic centre has partly lost: craftsmen, workshops, trattorias where conversations stretch late into the night. It is the Florence that Florentines still inhabit.
The right pace for visiting Florence in summer
In June, July and August, Florence needs to be lived at a precise rhythm. Early morning is the time for museums and churches. The afternoon, during the hottest hours, is the time for rest or a stop at one of the city’s historic cafés. In the evening, when the temperature drops, it is the time to walk, sit in a square, discover corners that disappear into the crowd during the day. This is exactly how Florentines survive their city in summer — and it works.
Florence’s gardens: greenery, cool air and views over the city
In Florence, gardens are true open-air museums. The Giardino di Boboli is the best known; the Giardino Bardini is less visited and equally beautiful. Our favourite is the Giardino delle Rose, on the hill above Oltrarno: it offers one of the finest views over the entire city, with the Duomo in the background, and is often surprisingly peaceful even in high season.
Florence in summer is intense, warm, at times chaotic. But if you know when to move, what to look for and where to slow down, it reveals a version of itself that not everyone gets to see.
Staying at Palazzo della Nave, you are already in the right place to explore all of this: we are just steps from the Uffizi, in the heart of the historic centre. If you would like personalised suggestions on what to see during your stay, stop and ask — we are here for exactly that.
